2 years ago, I bought the reciever and activated it. 6 months later called to cancel. Lady told me to give her the reciever ID. I did, she told me to make sure the reciever was on at which point I turned it off. She then told me it was deactived and told me have a nice day.It's been a great 2.5 years of free XM!Anyone else been so lucky?
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Anyone getting XM for free?
- Thread starter jobhunter
- Start date
Please explain the length of their debt?
I figured they'd send the update signal for a while so I left it turned off for a few weeks. Anyway, free free free!When I called to cancel it was for one reason1. The Sound Quality.IMHO, I could not bring myself to keep paying for such sloppy, muddy audio. Channel selection is great, loved the abundance of programming choices. Of course now that I get it free, I do not complain (but as they add more channels the worse and worse it gets)I still think XM is wonderful - but will never replace local radio. (LOVIN' THE CHILL OUT CHANNEL ON 84 and the new Flight 26)
I see that a lot on here - XM listeners complaining about the poor audio quality - more so on certain channels than others. I personally have no problems at all with their audio quality. The volume is fine. The bass is fine. The treble is fine. My Delphi XM SKYFi2 receiver with the SKYFi audio system (boombox) provides me with exceptional stereo quality. That's all I care about for the small handful of XM channels that I actually listen to on a regular basis. It's the best stereo system that I've ever had in my entire life !I read (somewhere) recently that my SKYFi2 receiver does not meet current Federal emission standards. I wonder if a SKYFi3 will be coming out soon to rectify that problem ?THE MAJOR
I have the orginal Delphi SkyFi with the home and car adapter kits. In my truck ('02 Toyata Tundra Limited) the sound quality isn't as important, as it is noisy when driving - because I smoke my window is always cracked. However, at home on my expensive home theatre system (where I do the majority of listening) it is particularly noticible that each channel is stretching the bandwith limit.You made an interesting comment, "small handful of XM channels that I actually listen to" there are so many choices I wish we could turn off the ones we would never listen to and roll the available bandwith over to our favorite channels. Wishful thinking on my part.STILL LOVIN' THE CHILL OUT CHANNEL AND LISTENING TO MY MILWAUKEE BREWERS WHOOP UP ON CHICAGO...AGAIN)
I got the Delphi XM SKYFi2 receiver with the vehicle adapter kit as a Christmas present. After thinking about it for a few days I decided that since I only spend an average of about a half an hour a day in my car I would set up my XM in my living room, so I went out and bought the SKYFi audio system (boombox). I set it up, and I've been listening to it at home ever since. It's basically in a fixed state where I never move it (or even touch it for that matter). I've got the 'satellite' antenna facing my ceiling towards the actual XM satellite above the Equator south-southwest of where I live. The boombox is so powerful that I can have the volume level set between 15 and 18 and hear it in my entire home. When I buy my next new car it will definitely have the XM already factory-installed in it, but for now I'll continue to listen to old-fashioned terrestrial radio while driving around.THE MAJOR
I listen to XM over DIRECT TV and most of the channels SOUND LIKE CRAP (Its Direct TVs fault NOT XM (They had an audio problem like this a few years ago,took them a month or so to finally fix it))Ever since DTV has made XM public on Nov. 15th it has sounded like crap and they fail to do anything about it (I dunno why)
It would be okay to have for free but I'm not sure I would even want to invest in the hardware and all the wiring for the car.I heard XM and Sirus when the first started and thought that for quality XM was far better. Sirus suffered from that underwater digital sound. It seems to be really bad on their talk channels. I can't stand that kind of distortion.Since we lost our smooth jazz station where I live I was interested in XM because of Watercolors and CNet radio. Now I have many of the XM music channels on DirecTV and I'm just not that impressed anymore.I guess if I was younger and didn't have all the bills that come with keeping up a household I might spring for satellite radio. I don't want to even think about having to pay another montly bill.
I had a similar experience, but on Sirius. And it wasn't really cancellation. I closed the bank account they were drafting for my subscription. I figured they would cancel service when they weren't getting any more money, but I continued getting service for a year. Then my system was stolen out of my car, so I called to report the theft, and they said they would deactivate the system, not mentioning anything about not getting paid for a year. I now have (paid for) XM.
Mike, You are like me, just wanted sat radio for niche programming (in my case ESPN radio) I wonder if that is the trend with more listeners?On a side note...I was talking with my dad last night and he was listening to Frank's Place on his DirecTV. A few months back they upgraded their home theater system and he said that he couldn't tell much difference from XM and a CD. I was blown away, I told him that it's acutally like 1/64 the acutally quality. He said he couldn't really tell and he loved it.I've also heard this from other listeners of sat radio who bought into the "digital quality" hype (which doesn't mean shit, anything converted to ones and zero's is digital quality) sat radio.Amazes me that non-radio folks really can't tell the difference nor do they care apparenlty.(LISTENED TO SQUIZZ ALL WEEKEND LONG)
What the hell is CNet radio? It certainly isn't on XM.Mike said:
Sadly I doubt sound quality is an issue for many Sat radio listeners. The average Joe is more than willing to trade sound quality for convenience or variety. As when CD's were traded for MP3's (or earlier, the trade off of LP's for cassettes). Kind of leaves those of us who value quality audio in the cold. One of the major selling points of XM (for me, at least) in the early days was the audio quality (which was superior to Sirius at the time). I'd imagine as compression technology improves, the focus will still be cramming more channelsinto the lineup rather than improving audio.Now I find XM's sound tolerable (a 13 band in-car EQ helps), but definitely not CD quality. I think of it more like FM radio now, only the music is a lot better, and there's more of it. My more critical listening is reserved for CD, SACD, and DVD-Audio. As long as XM programming doesn't start sounding like FM, I'll keep it around.
as far the original topic..yes i have had xm for free. i had a skyfi free for about a year..i called to cancel. got a skyfi 2..put the old skyfi in a drawer and forgot about it..several months went by..i stumbled over it one day..hooked it up so my wife could use it at home. was gonna activate it again and suprise..it still worked!!and it kept working for about a year..then one day..POP..then it went to channel 1..i called and activated it..went a few months then decided i didnt need it..called canceled..and to this day.. it still works..a co worker has it. she hasnt had to activate it and get an account yet..its been a month since i had it!!
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